Every Friday about 220 Athens-area school children go home with 8-pound bags of food, something they may not get otherwise.
The bags are stuffed with child-friendly items like peanut butter, applesauce and ravioli in pop-top cans collected mostly through donations to a program called Food 2 Kids that’s run out of the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia.
Since its beginning two years ago, the program has almost tripled in size, thanks in part to UGA employees Don and Melinda DeMaria.
“For us it started out really just sort of seeing the need at our daughter’s school,” said Don DeMaria, director of the Washington Semester Program and the Learning Communities Initiative. “This is probably one of the easiest ways to have a real impact. Everybody goes shopping. It’s easy to pick up an extra jar of peanut butter or two or three.”
The food bank is one of the agencies supported by UGA’s Campaign for Charities, which runs through Dec. 18. Employees can make donations to any of 1,200 agencies through its Web site at https://webapps.ais.uga.edu/PBCC/home.seam.
The program, also sponsored by the Junior League of Athens, gives food to elementary school students in Clarke, Barrow and Oconee counties, where hunger and poverty are real issues.
“We made a conscious choice to raise a family in Clarke County. We both work here, and we want to live in the community where we work,” said Melinda DeMaria, associate director of undergraduate admissions. “And we want to be a real part of that community. Our daughter goes to school right around the corner from where we live. The needs here are real to us.”
The community mindset has led them to link their work and social lives to the needs of hungry children. They’ve started a Facebook page for the program and installed food collection bins in Terrell Hall, Aderhold Hall and the River’s Crossing Building as well as at Community Connection and their daughter’s daycare center.
For the food bank, they’ve been a huge asset, said Tina Laseter, the agency’s development director.
“They’ve been wonderful for us. We’re a staff of 18 people here, and last year we distributed 6.7 million pounds of food, which is about 5.2 million meals. We can’t do all of that on our own,” she said. “Melinda has been out here with her entire office, sorting salvage and writing thank-you notes. They’ve both actively helped me with planning for our annual fundraiser Roadkill Café. They’ve just been great advocates for the food bank and the Food 2 Kids program.”